For years, Fiji’s media industry was forced to compete for revenue and market reach in a restrictive environment, due to stringent laws and adversarial overtones from those in power.
Journalists operated under the Media Industry Development Act (MIDA) 2010, and under this legislation, the media covered three national polls — 2014, 2018 and 2022.
The coverage for each election cycle differed drastically from the other, and this was not only attributed to the change in laws, but friction between various outlets and political entities — including the Government, political parties and even the Fijian Elections Office (FEO) contributed to this.
This scenario was reflected in the 2022 Election Report of the Multinational Observer Group (MOG), which made three recommendations for the country to adopt before the 2026 polls.
Among the recommendations were; to review MIDA’s mandate and operations to create greater certainty and clarity for media organisations, to remove the requirement for media to obtain prior approval from MIDA for reporting during the blackout period, and to review the appropriateness of guidelines on the conduct of opinion polls.
Since MIDA has been tossed out, the onus now falls on FEO to take the other recommendations into account — something which Acting Supervisor of Elections (ASOE) Ana Mataiciwa and her staff have already begun to roll out.
On Thursday, the FEO had its first consultation with representatives from media organisations to hold an informal closed session meeting to discuss challenges faced by journalists in covering the 2022 General Election, and recommendations on how engagement could be built upon in the near future.
While addressing the media during the opening of consultations, Ms Mataiciwa said the meeting was arranged to hear firsthand feedback on how the FEO engaged with the members of the media in covering the 2022 general elections.
“I would like this opportunity to thank you for your understanding and cooperation during the 2022 General Election. I know it was not easy for most of you, but you managed to deliver, so thank you,” she said.
“You enabled parties, candidates and others to present their messages to voters and to inform voters of their choices.
“Therefore, thank you for your hard work, patience and perseverance and we look forward to receiving the same level of commitment in the next general election.”
She said this was the first time for FEO to involve its stakeholders in reviewing its activities and processes that contributed and led to the 2022 General election.
She said media organisations were an important stakeholder for the FEO.
The ASOE also cited the MOG report, which highlighted that 13 local media organisations and 12 international media organisations were accredited to report on the 2022 election.
This was an increase from the 19 accredited media organisations for the 2018 General Election. In 2022, a total of 410 media personnel were accredited.
Ms Mataiciwa said the MOG report also stated that many media organisations had described the election environment in 2022 environment as “more restrictive” when compared to the 2018 general election.
“The ultimate aim of the FEO, moving forward, is to establish and strengthen its relationship with media organisations and ensure that the general election environment is not restrictive and does not contribute to confusion and uncertainty.
“Today’s consultation is the beginning of this new and exciting journey. Your role in covering the electoral processes is crucial and for this reason the FEO will do all it can to ensure that the processes and procedures and transparent, clear and precise.
“In addition, the FEO will take heed of the three recommendations made in the MOG report in its ability to strengthen the media’s ability to contribute to public disclosure and political accountability,” Ms Mataiciwa said.
The FEO says similar consultations with the media will continue in the coming months to strengthen the partnership between the two.
